Black Friday Marketing: 7 Proven Strategies to Maximise Holiday Sales

Right, let’s be honest—Black Friday’s done and dusted, but your biggest opportunities are just starting. While most brands are having a sit-down after the weekend madness, the smart ones know there’s serious money to be made in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

We’ve been helping brands in hospitality, travel, and e-commerce make the most of this period for years. The numbers don’t lie: A research says, the stretch from Black Friday to Christmas often brings in about 30% of annual revenue for retail businesses.

Here’s what’s working right now.

Don’t just copy and paste your Black Friday offers until January—that’s lazy and it cheapens your brand. Instead, think about it like chapters in a book.

Start with a “cheers for shopping with us” campaign for your Black Friday customers. Hit them within 48 hours with something exclusive—maybe early bird access to your Cyber Monday deals or a cheeky little bonus with their next order. Bain’s data shows repeat customers spend 67% more than new ones, so these people are gold.

Then roll out different offers each week:

• Cyber Monday: Hit different product lines
• Mid-December: Bundle deals work brilliantly
• Final week: Clear remaining stock with flash sales

This keeps people interested without making your brand look desperate with constant mega-discounts.

Generic “come back and buy something” ads are rubbish when everyone’s inbox is stuffed with Christmas marketing. You need to be smarter about who you’re targeting and what you’re saying to them.

Split your audiences properly:

• People who browsed but didn’t buy on Black Friday
• Existing customers who might want related products
• Old customers you haven’t heard from lately
• Anyone who abandoned their cart with Christmas-worthy stuff

Google reckons retargeted customers are 70% more likely to convert, but only if you’re not boring them with irrelevant messages.

Use dynamic ads that show people exactly what they looked at, but with a seasonal twist. If someone was checking out flights, hit them with “perfect for a Christmas break” messaging. For products, try “ideal for gifting” angles.

This is crucial—71% of UK Christmas shopping happens on phones, according to a latest report. Yet loads of brands still treat mobile like an afterthought.

Speed matters massively. Google says 53% of people will ditch your site if it takes more than three seconds to load. That’s mental when you think about it, but that’s how impatient we all are.

Focus on:

• Compressing images properly
• Cutting down on unnecessary scripts
• Using a decent CDN
• Making checkout stupidly simple

Speaking of checkout—make it dead easy. Guest checkout, multiple payment options (Apple Pay, Google Pay, the lot), and show people exactly where they are in the process. Brands that nail this stuff see conversion improvements of 20-30% during the holidays.

User-generated content isn’t just Instagram fluff—it proper works. Stackla found that 79% of people say content from other customers influences their buying decisions, and that jumps to 84% during gift-buying season.

Get your Black Friday customers sharing their purchases. Create hashtag campaigns around things like “best Black Friday finds” or “perfect present sorted.” But don’t stop there—use this content everywhere:

• Stick it on product pages
• Pop it in your emails
• Use it in your ads
• Feature it on your homepage

Travel brands especially benefit from this. Real photos from actual travellers perform six times better than stock photos that look like everyone else’s.

Generic “Happy Holidays!” messages get binned immediately. Use what you know about your customers to create stuff they actually care about.

Set up campaigns that trigger based on what people do:

• Someone browsing but not buying? Hit them with gift messaging
• Past purchases suggesting they might want complementary products
• Weather-triggered travel deals for destinations they’ve looked at
• Alerts when popular items come back in stock

Look at your Black Friday sales data to spot patterns:

• What goes well together?
• Who’s buying gifts versus treating themselves?
• Which customers might upgrade to premium versions?

Brands doing personalisation properly see email engagement jump 15-20% and conversions improve 10-15% during holiday periods.

There’s a fine line between helpful urgency and being that pushy salesperson everyone avoids. Use real information instead of made-up deadlines.

Instead of “limited time only” (which everyone ignores), try:

• “Only 2 left in your size”
• “3 other people viewing this item”
• “Just restocked—won’t last long”

For delivery deadlines, be helpful:

• “Order by December 15th for Christmas delivery”
• “Last week for gift wrapping”
• “Final chance for personalisation”

This way you’re being useful, not just pushy.

You need to know which bits of your strategy are bringing in the money, not just which ones look good on paper.

Set up proper tracking that follows the whole customer journey—from first seeing your ad to actually buying something. Look at:

• How much it costs to get new customers through each channel
• Whether holiday customers stick around afterwards
• If your social campaigns actually build brand awareness
• How mobile compares to desktop performance

Establish clear targets beyond just sales numbers. Things like customer acquisition cost, lifetime value of holiday shoppers, and which campaigns create the best long-term customers.

You don’t need to do everything at once. Pick your strongest channel—whether that’s email, social media, or paid advertising—and build from there. Mobile experience should be your first priority since that’s where most shopping happens.

Most importantly, focus on building proper relationships, not just grabbing quick sales. The customers you connect with after Black Friday often become your best long-term clients.

At Propeller Digital, we’ve helped hospitality brands increase direct bookings by 40% and e-commerce sites boost holiday conversions by 35% using these exact strategies. It’s about finding the right combination for your specific audience and business.

The holiday season’s got weeks left to run—make sure you’re positioned to make the most of every opportunity.